1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copying machine with a sorter wherein an image on an object can be copied to a recording material and a lot of recorded materials are sorted and stored by the sorter.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus, e.g., an electrostatic copying machine forms an image of an object on paper for copying based on an image of the object read by a reading section. The image forming apparatus has a sorter for sorting paper on which the image is formed and storing paper therein.
The sorter includes a bin unit integrally having a plurality of paper trays (bins) for storing copied paper discharged from an image forming section of the image forming apparatus are sorted, a driving motor for relatively moving the bin unit up and down to a paper discharging section of the image forming section, and a paper transporting mechanism of transporting the discharged paper from the sorter provided at a position close to the image forming section to the sorter provided at a position away from the image forming section when two or more sorters are used at the same time.
The bin unit has a sorting section having 5 to 25 paper trays (bins) each can store 50 to 100 discharged paper and a non-sort tray which is provided at the uppermost portion of the sorting section and can store 100 to 250 discharged paper.
This type of the sorter has sorting functions such as a non-sort mode in which discharged papers discharged from the image forming section are contained in a stack, a sort mode in which the discharged papers are sorted in order of page of the original and contained, a group mode in which the discharged papers of the same page of the original are grouped together and contained, and a cascade mode in which when the number of discharged papers exceeds a predetermined value, the extra number of discharged papers is sequentially contained in a bin, which is not used at present.
More specifically, in the non-sort mode, a bin unit is moved down to the lowest position (home position) by the driving motor, and the discharged papers discharged from the image forming section are contained in a stack. In other words, the non-sort mode functions as a general discharging tray.
In the sort mode, the bin unit is moved up and down by the driving motor and the discharged paper having an image of the same document as the original discharged from the image forming section is contained one by one in the bin corresponding to the number of the coping papers, and the sequential discharged paper having an image of a next document is stacked one by one in order.
In the group mode, every time when the copy of the same document as the original is finished, the bin unit is moved by one bin, and the discharged papers having an image of the same document of the original are grouped together and contained in a stack.
In the above sorter, in a case that the sorter is operated in any modes, the up and down movement of the bin unit is stopped regardless of the position of the bin unit at the time when the finally discharged paper is contained in a predetermined bin of the sorter. Then, the sorter is on standby in this state until all discharged papers contained in the respective bins are extracted by a user. Thereafter, the sorter is returned to the home position. Therefore, in a case that the finally discharged paper corresponds to the bin of the uppermost stage, the bin unit in which the discharged papers are contained in the respective bins is stopped at the lowest position (in a state that the bin unit is moved down lowest).
This brings about a problem in which a hard working posture to take out the discharged paper is required of a user working close to the image reading section of the copy machine. Moreover, in a case that the side surface of the sorter is provided close to the wall, there is a problem in which a space necessary to take up discharged papers is not easily ensured.
Separately from the above problems, in a case that two or more sorters (coupling type of sorter) are used at the same time, there occurs a problem in which the sorter, which is provided at a portion away from the image forming section is hindered, the user taking up the discharged papers from the sorter, which is provided at a portion close to the image forming section.